UPDATE: The creator of the God of War Ragnarok PSN-bypass mod has told IGN it had become “way too popular” and they pulled it offline out of fear of a potential threat from Sony, not because Sony had actually been in touch.
In a statement issued to IGN, modder iArtorias said:
“In short: that was my personal decision to remove the mod since it has become way too popular and people started promoting it on Steam forums as well thus generating tons of attention.
“I just wanted to avoid the possible threats from the Sony side, even though the code has never touched any of their products in memory. You never know and it’s really a grey area to me.”
ORIGINAL STORY: The creator of the high-profile God of War Ragnarok PSN-bypass mod has reportedly pulled it offline without explanation.
Just days after the PlayStation game God of War Ragnarok launched on PC to a ‘mixed’ Steam user review rating over its forced PlayStation Network account linking, a mod was released that bypassed the requirement entirely.
Sony had made it clear on the God of War Ragnarok Steam page that a PlayStation Network account would be required to play Sony Santa Monica’s purely single-player adventure, but that failed to prevent a number of negative reviews singling out the policy.
One modder going by the name iArtorias took matters into their own hands by stripping out the PSN requirement. iArtorias’ NoPSSDK mod, which had been downloaded thousands of times from Nexus Mods before its removal, “fully strips the PlayStation PC SDK runtime requirement for God of War Ragnarok.”
But because the mod removed the PSN overlay from the game and mimicked an offline mode in the process, it was being used to bypass the PSN / Steam account linking requirement. IGN verified the mod worked before its removal.
Posting earlier this week on Nexus Mods, iArtorias vowed to maintain their mod even if Sony updates God of War Ragnarok to combat it. “I will try to maintain the tool even if something changes, but hopefully nothing crucial happens,” they said.
But today, September 26, the mod is no longer available from Nexus Mods or Github. In a tweet, Nexus Mods insisted NoPSSDK had been removed from its site “by the author” and was trying to find out why. It seems likely Sony took a dim view of iArtorias’ mod, but it’s unclear at this point if the company got in touch to request its removal or whether iArtorias took it upon themselves to do so. IGN has attempted to contact iArtorias via Nexus Mods, and has asked Sony for comment.
Before the removal of the mod, iArtorias had received requests to release a similar mod for Sony’s other recently released PC games, such as Ghost of Tsushima. Ghost of Tsushima requires a PSN account for the Legends online multiplayer mode and to use PlayStation overlay, but it is not required to play the single-player game.
Sony’s PSN account requirement for its PC games was thrust into the limelight with the release of Arrowhead’s explosive PC and PS5 co-op shooter Helldivers 2 earlier this year. Helldivers 2 suffered a review bomb campaign on Steam after Sony made PSN accounts mandatory for PC gamers on Valve’s platform (Arrowhead subsequently decided to turn the Steam user review history graph into a cape, which is ready for launch but has yet to release).
Sony eventually backed down and reversed Helldivers 2’s PSN account requirement, but the game remains unavailable in the many countries that lack PSN. And indeed all Sony’s games on PC now suffer from this problem, which means God of War Ragnarök is unavailable on PC in over 100 countries.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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